Hey Descent community. With my PvP variant I have posted, I have a bunch of 'tiny' tweaks I plan to make with it, but for the most part it feels like a working game. With that in mind I'm gonna take a small break from it and work on something new a couple of friends suggested I try. Anyone can post ideas they have to fix or add to this variant, it helps me a lot to identify what direction the variant needs to take. Thanks guys!
*Title sounds a little cheesy to me so if anyone has a better title for this variant I'm all ears.


BJZSN's Waves of Mutilation

Waves of Mutilation is a variant designed to pit a team of heroes against an overlord in a series of monster waves. Heroes will acquire XP and shop items with each wave, and each hero will have a pool of lives to help combat the 6 waves they will have to face. The overlord will have several monsters at his disposal as well as powerful lieutenants, and overlord cards to make the heroes trial as difficult as possible.

Tiles Used
5B, 27B, 28B, 31B, 36B, 48B, 50B, 60B, 67B, two 68B, entrance and exit tile, four end tiles, three end tiles (alt.), two joiners, one joiner (combination).

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2573173/bjzsn?size=original

Setup

Place search tokens and objective tokens as per the map image. Objective tokens represent spawn points the monsters will use to enter the map. Take heroes and place them on either entrance/exit spaces. Each hero receives three life tokens represented by red search tokens. When a hero is knocked out remove one life token from that hero’s supply. When a hero is knocked out and has no life tokens left he cannot be revived in any way. The overlord builds his overlord deck by first choosing either basic deck. He then may choose up to 4 points worth of universal cards. For each card chosen he may remove a card from his basic deck from the game. He then chooses two overlord class decks. He must take two level 1 cards and one level 2 card from both decks, and only one level 3 card from either deck. The overlord must add these card to his deck without removing other cards from his deck. The overlord shuffles his overlord deck and draws as many cards from it as there are heroes playing.

Wave Phase
1) Before the wave begins the hero team draws a number of shop cards for the current Act wave based off the number of players. Two heroes draw 6 cards, then choose to keep one weapon and one armor/trinket, then discard the rest of the cards. Three heroes draw 8 cards and choose two weapons and two armor/trinkets. Four heroes draw 10 cards and choose three weapons and three armor/trinkets. After discarding the remaining cards if the hero team did not draw the number of weapons or armor/trinkets allowed for, draw cards until you get that type of item. Take that item and discard the rest.

2) The overlord draws a random monster card for each group allowed in the current wave. Then he rolls a blue die for each monster card in order from top to bottom of the wave list. He placed the monster group accordingly:
0 range: Top-left spawn point
2 range: Top-middle spawn point
3 range: Top-right spawn point
4 range: Bottom-left spawn point
5 range: Bottom-middle spawn point
6 range: Bottom-right spawn point
The very first monster group of the first wave must be summoned at the top-middle spawn point. The overlord may place the monsters in any orientation on the tile of a spawn point, excluding the top-middle spawn point. Monsters summoned on the top-middle spawn point must be place anywhere below the bridge. Monsters cannot be summoned on a tile where the majority of the heroes are on and the overlord must reroll the blue die. If the heroes are evenly spread amongst multiple spawn points, the heroes choose which spawn point is restricted. The monsters cannot be summoned at a spawn point with monsters already on it and the overlord must reroll the blue die.

3) When the wave is defeated the heroes will perform these actions in the order listed:
1. Each hero gets one free action. Heroes choose who to activate in the order they decide.
2. Each hero rolls one red die and recovers health equal to the hearts rolled.
3. Each hero gains 2 XP. They may spend it immediately or save it.

Turn Phase
1) The heroes choose who to activate first, then do their turn as normal. When their turn is finished the hero is exhausted and cannot be activated again (place a threat token on the hero card to indicate this).

2) The overlord draws an overlord card if all his units are refreshed (not exhausted) at the beginning of his turn. He then chooses a monster group to activate and resolves his turn with it.
*Turn order will continue to pass in this order until all heroes and monster groups have been exhausted. When this happens, all heroes and monster groups become refreshed and the team that did not have the last turn begins the new turn phase.

Rules
- Search tokens reward the player a potion. Take the search token to represent this. A potion can be traded, and is a free action to use. Using a potion recovers all health, stamina and conditions of a player.

-As a free action a knocked out hero may respawn with full health and stamina at either entrance space (the hero still gets 2 actions).

-At any point during an overlords turn he may choose to remove all figures from the map. This counts as the wave being defeated and the heroes gets all actions relating to defeating a wave.

-Lieutenants gain health and upgraded defense dice (brown upgrades to white, white upgrades to black, if weakest die is black add one brown die) based off how many monsters the lieutenant replaces according to its lieutenant deck:
Act 1:
Replaces 1 Master - +6 health, upgrade weakest defense die or add 1 brown die
Replaces 1 Master 1 Minion - +4 health, upgrade weakest defense die or add 1 brown die
Replaces 1 Master 2 Minion - +2 health, upgrade weakest defense die or add 1 brown die
Replaces Monster Group – No change

Act 2:
Replaces 1 Master - +12 health, add 1 white die
Replaces 1 Master 1 Minion - +9 health, upgrade weakest defense die or add 1 brown die
Replaces 1 Master 2 Minion - +6 health, upgrade weakest defense die or add 1 brown die
Replaces Monster Group – No change

Wave Setup (use monster group limitations based off number of heroes playing)
2 Players (draw 6 cards, keep one weapon and one armor/trinket)

Act I
1st Wave: 5-Group 4-Group
2nd Wave: 4-Group 3-Group
3rd Wave: 3-Group 2-Group 1 Lieutenant

Act II
1st Wave: 5-Group 3-Group
2nd Wave: 4-Group 3-Group 2-Group
3rd Wave: 2-Group 2 Lieutenant

3 Players (draw 8 cards, keep two weapons and two armor/trinket)

Act I
1st Wave: 5-Group, 4-Group
2nd Wave: 5-Group, 4-Group, 3 Group
3rd Wave: 3-Group, 2-Group, 1 Lieutenant

Act II
1st Wave: 5-Group, 4-Group, 3-Group
2nd Wave: 4-Group, 3-Group, 2-Group
3rd Wave: 3-Group, 2-Group, 2 Lieutenant

4 Players (draw 10 cards, keep three weapons and three armor/trinket)

Act I
1st Wave: 5-Group, 5-Group, 4-Group
2nd Wave: 4-Group, 3-Group, 3-Group, 2-Group
3rd Wave: 3-Group, 2-Group, 2-Group, 1 Lieutenant

Act II
1st Wave: 5-Group, 4-Group, 4-Group, 3-Group
2nd Wave: 4-Group, 3-Group, 3-Group, 2-Group
3rd Wave: 3-Group, 2-Group, 2-Group, 2 Lieutenant


This is a work in progress so it's gonna need some playtesting on my part, including giving the overlord a little more control. All suggestions are welcome!

Edit: - several sections of the rules have been reworded to be more coherent and logical
- changed number of monsters summoned in a group to be based off normal monster limitation rules, felt this system was just easier to use than what I had proposed
- 2 hero games now draw 6 shop cards upon defeating a wave
- the free turn heroes receive for defeating a wave has been changed to be a free action
- updated map image to use ? objective token for spawn points